The following Prezi introduces you to how vocabulary works in Chinese by looking at one character and lots of words that are built around it. To navigate the presentation, click on the arrow underneath. Once you've gone through the entire presentation, you can move around it on your own by clicking on a object.
Note that all of the examples are two characters. Most Chinese words consist of two characters. In many cases, each character has some meaning, and it lends that meaning to the word. However, many characters cannot be used alone. 朋友 means friend. Each character means friend, but neither is ever used alone. Some relatively common words, in fact, contain characters that are used nowhere else (though this list is quite small, what is interesting is that the words are not uncommon). 葡萄 pútao 'grape' and 尴尬 gāngà 'embarrassed' both contain characters that, in modern Chinese, occur nowhere else.
Because Chinese prefer two character words, sometimes characters are added on to make a one character word two characters. That is the case with 子 zi, which is appended onto many nouns but has no meaning (子 zǐ can also mean 'son' or 'child,' but there it is 3rd tone and also occurs with other characters to form words.) Examples include 桌子 zhōuzi 'table' and 狮子 shīzi 'lion.'
It should also be noted that many two character words are actually contractions of four character terms. For example, 电邮 diànyóu is a contraction of 电子邮件 diànziyóujiàn and means 'email;' 北大 běidà is a contraction of 北京大学 běijīngdàxué, and means Beijing University; 超市 chāoshì is a contraction of 超级市场 chāojíshìcháng, and means supermarket; 科技 kējì is a contraction of 科学技术 kēxuéjìshù, and means science and technology.
多音字 duōyīnzì Multiple Pronunciation Characters
Another feature of Chinese characters and Chinese vocabulary is the existence of 多音字 duōyīnzì multiple pronunciation characters. Many characters have more than one pronunciation, and as the pronunciation changes, so does the meaning. These characters are not uncommon, making up from five to 10 percent of commonly used characters. The meaning is almost always clear from the context, so they do not create any particular difficulty. Note that in some instances the difference is the tone; in some the pronunciation is entirely different. Examples: 好 hǎo good vs. 好 hào to like 乐 yuè music vs. 乐 lè happy 中 zhōng middle vs. 中 zhòng hit (a target) 还 hái still vs. 还 huán return 都 dōu all, both vs. 都 dū capital (city)
New Words
New vocabulary is normally created by putting characters together that describe the meaning of the term. For example many relatively new words begin with 电 diàn electricity, such as 电话 diànhuà electric speech = telephone 电车 diànchē electric car - tram 电脑 diànnǎo electric brain = computer
Another example is 手机 shǒujī hand machine = cell phone
Loan Words
Chinese does not easily accept loan words, simply because there is no accurate way to reproduce the sound of a foreign word, because there is no alphabet. They do exist, however:
咖啡
kā fēi
coffee
卡
kǎ
card
酷
kù
cool
沙拉
shā lā
salad
派对
pài duì
party
汉堡包
hàn bǎo bāo
hamburger
沙发
shā fā
sofa
可乐
kě lè
cola
幽默
yōu mò
humor
瑜伽
yú qié
yoga
卡路里
kǎ lù lǐ
calorie
逻辑
luó ji
logic
巴士
bā shì
bus
吧
bā
bar
咖喱
gā lí
curry
卡通
kǎ tōng
cartoon
吉他
jí tā
guitar
布丁
bù dīng
pudding
维他命
wéi tā mìng
vitamin
吐司
tǔ sī
toast
麦克风
mài kè fēng
microphone
高尔夫球
gāo ěr fū qiú
golf
保龄球
bǎo líng qiú
bowling
比萨
bǐ sà
pizza
柠檬
níng méng
lemon
派
pài
pie
迷你裙
mí nǐ qún
mini skirt
迪斯科
dí sī kē
disco
盎司
àng sī
ounce
A few Chinese words have made their way into English as well. Perhaps the most interesting is not a Chinese word, but Chinese way of saying something. The term 'Long time no see,' which is not grammatical English, is actually a direct translation of the Chinese 好久不见 hǎojiǔbùjiàn. It came from Chinese workers who spoke ungrammatical, or Pidgin, English based on their Chinese. Chow, meaning food, probably comes from the Chinese word meaning to stir fry, 炒 chǎo. Kowtow, to bow down to someone, comes either from 磕头 kētóu or 叩头 kòutóu, which mean the same. And of course tea comes from some dialect's pronunciation of 茶 chá, tea.
The following Prezi introduces you to how vocabulary works in Chinese by looking at one character and lots of words that are built around it. To navigate the presentation, click on the arrow underneath. Once you've gone through the entire presentation, you can move around it on your own by clicking on a object.
Chinese Vocabulary on Prezi
Note that all of the examples are two characters. Most Chinese words consist of two characters. In many cases, each character has some meaning, and it lends that meaning to the word. However, many characters cannot be used alone. 朋友 means friend. Each character means friend, but neither is ever used alone. Some relatively common words, in fact, contain characters that are used nowhere else (though this list is quite small, what is interesting is that the words are not uncommon). 葡萄 pútao 'grape' and 尴尬 gāngà 'embarrassed' both contain characters that, in modern Chinese, occur nowhere else.
Because Chinese prefer two character words, sometimes characters are added on to make a one character word two characters. That is the case with 子 zi, which is appended onto many nouns but has no meaning (子 zǐ can also mean 'son' or 'child,' but there it is 3rd tone and also occurs with other characters to form words.) Examples include 桌子 zhōuzi 'table' and 狮子 shīzi 'lion.'
It should also be noted that many two character words are actually contractions of four character terms. For example, 电邮 diànyóu is a contraction of 电子邮件 diànziyóujiàn and means 'email;' 北大 běidà is a contraction of 北京大学 běijīngdàxué, and means Beijing University; 超市 chāoshì is a contraction of 超级市场 chāojíshìcháng, and means supermarket; 科技 kējì is a contraction of 科学技术 kēxuéjìshù, and means science and technology.
多音字 duōyīnzì Multiple Pronunciation Characters
Another feature of Chinese characters and Chinese vocabulary is the existence of 多音字 duōyīnzì multiple pronunciation characters. Many characters have more than one pronunciation, and as the pronunciation changes, so does the meaning. These characters are not uncommon, making up from five to 10 percent of commonly used characters. The meaning is almost always clear from the context, so they do not create any particular difficulty. Note that in some instances the difference is the tone; in some the pronunciation is entirely different.Examples:
好 hǎo good vs. 好 hào to like
乐 yuè music vs. 乐 lè happy
中 zhōng middle vs. 中 zhòng hit (a target)
还 hái still vs. 还 huán return
都 dōu all, both vs. 都 dū capital (city)
New Words
New vocabulary is normally created by putting characters together that describe the meaning of the term. For example many relatively new words begin with 电 diàn electricity, such as电话 diànhuà electric speech = telephone
电车 diànchē electric car - tram
电脑 diànnǎo electric brain = computer
Another example is
手机 shǒujī hand machine = cell phone
Loan Words
Chinese does not easily accept loan words, simply because there is no accurate way to reproduce the sound of a foreign word, because there is no alphabet. They do exist, however:A few Chinese words have made their way into English as well. Perhaps the most interesting is not a Chinese word, but Chinese way of saying something. The term 'Long time no see,' which is not grammatical English, is actually a direct translation of the Chinese 好久不见 hǎojiǔbùjiàn. It came from Chinese workers who spoke ungrammatical, or Pidgin, English based on their Chinese. Chow, meaning food, probably comes from the Chinese word meaning to stir fry, 炒 chǎo. Kowtow, to bow down to someone, comes either from 磕头 kētóu or 叩头 kòutóu, which mean the same. And of course tea comes from some dialect's pronunciation of 茶 chá, tea.
Recommended Reading
http://cjvlang.com/Writing/writchin/ciandzi.html
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